How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

When you shoot a deer and you say its 225lbs.. Is that field dressed or is that live weight?

Up here in michigan when I say I shot a 195 lb deer that is field dressed and several hours old already... so you could add 40 lbs or so on to that for the live weight..

I met someone the other day from Arkansas and we were talking deer hunting and he was giving me weights and I ask him, is that field dressed or live.. He said LIVE..

I was amused. He said everyone down south way measures weights of deer in LIVE weight.. He thot it was funny we did it field dressed..

So , which way do you do it?

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

I don't know of anyone around here that doesn't weigh them after they are dressed. No way I'm dragging any more than I have to.:D

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

Well, I'm assuming they estimate live weight.. and they say the live weight to make the deer sound bigger or something..

Geez if we did that, we'd be saying 230 240 250 260

He was saying 170 180

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

Dressed Weight in NY -

No-one ever even talks about live weight.

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

Dressed.

I'll tell you one thing...When you ACTUALLY weigh deer on a good scale, it is a humbling event. Where I work (a vocational school) we have a meat processing lab. They cut up deer for Hunters for the Hungry. They do over 100/year. There are some big deer brought in. I have yet to see somebody UNDER-guess the weight of a deer. They had a BIG 11 point in last year. Everybody was saying 225-250. It weighed 170. Big deer, but it takes a freakin hog to go 200 dressed.

When we bought a new scale at our camp, everybody was really excited. Now, nobody wants to weigh their deer anymore. LOL

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

If they're talking live weight, How did they get the deer to stand on the scale?:D

Dressed here, usually casual but formal is ok.;)

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

Dressed--but not with clothes! :D

I've never been able to say 225lbs--there's only been one taken around here in the last 10 years or so that weighed that . . . dressed of course.

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

Dressed here also.
I shot my 13 pointer last year and he officially dressed out at 198 lbs on one scale and 199 on another.
The biggest dressed buck i have personally seen was 268lbs,and that was on certified scales.The biggest on record in my area is 305 lbs.But then of course the average mature buck will go 180 plus around here:)

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

On public land in Florida it is a requirement to have the biologist weigh the deer and remove the jawbone(for an age and health analisys). They want the live weight and not dressed. But, then again we are sorta lucky...130 pounds live weight is a big deer on public land.

And yes, y'all are right people do overestimate. I've seen people crowded around the scale for an 8 point and people were saying 130-140, but it was only 116. If you are curious...no I got pretty close I said 115. after the scale stopped moving the biologist pointed at me and grinned, and asked me why my guess was different from the other guys and I told him I used to hunt in Georgia, years ago and I've seen deer on the scale that were 140.

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

BEing from NY I also consider it a field dressed weight. There are those that do it live weight. I've gotten pretty good a figuring dressed weight. Usually within 5 pounds plus or minus. When they start to get bigger is where I get off. I got in a big peeing contested with a fellow on another site one time. He said the deer in the picture was X... and I said, NO WAY. Absolutely no way did it weight that much. Then it happened again. Finally found out this guy from Indiana was doing live weight.

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

Field dress weight.--But I have seen guys bring there deer to checking stations to get there deer weight not field dress. I wouldn't want to eat a deer thats been drove around not field dress.

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

IN MA. WE SAY FEILD DRESS AT? NEVER SEEN ANYONE COME TO THE SCALES DOING LIVE WEIGHT!!!

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

We go by field dressed weight. We don't care what the guts weigh.

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

Thanks Davidmil for the chart. Good info to have!:)

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

Field dressed here as well, never heard anyone say live weight. My biggest was 211 dressed.

Biggest(rack wise), most mature buck I ever took was in late December one season.......he had lost so much weight chasing does and possibly would not have made it through the winter, he only weighed 125 lbs. dressed.

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

I've had this chart forever. It seems to be pretty accurate, but if you take a buck early or late in the season, the weight will be off.


Measure the deers girth behind the front legs.
GIRTH (inches) DRESSED WT. TOTAL WT.
33 91 120
34 96 127
35 102 134
36 108 141
37 113 146
38 119 154
39 124 161
40 130 167
41 136 174
42 141 180
43 147 187
44 152 193
45 158 200
46 164 206
47 169 213
48 175 219
49 180 226
50 186 233
51 192 239
52 197 246

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

It all depends here, most people say it after the deer is dressed and most of the people I hunt with guess the weight as opposed to hanging it on a scale which is usually fairly accurate and after a few years the deer tends to grow it`ll start off as a 125lb year old deer and after a couple of years hes a 225lb 10 point buck

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

I always say dressed weight. My biggest was in 2002 a 12 pointer that weighed 236 field dressed and was offically weighed on a MN DNR scale.

Good Luck!

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

In NC we get to just call it in so I wouldn't even bother to weight it. In Va and Md I can't call it in but nobody seems to care about even seeing the deer. I quit bringing them to the check in station. I'll just go down with out the deer and check it in. So there again visual estimate.

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

Field dressed with me. How many guys really drag it out with all the guts in it to weigh it?? The biggest I got was my buck last year that dressed out at 236 shot in Canada. Man that thing was a hog!! Should have seen the 4 wheeler droop down when we loaded it up. :D:D

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

In my neck of the woods deer are measured in dressed weight. (Maine & New Hampshire)

It would either take an extremely confident hunter to bring a scale to the woods or a foolish hunter to drag it out whole to get a live weight.

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

Live weight

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

Adam the way to do it is to weight it dressed out. and if you want to guess the live weight there is somthing online that tells you what it would be live. its around 40lbs for a deer i think.

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

I have never weighed one either. If I can pull him into the pickup box by myself, he's average, if not, he's a big one.

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

thats a good one wideone. how about if i cant strap it to my harley davidson what do i do?
do i call for back up

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

PROLINE:... When you do that girth measurement, do you do it before or after it's dressed?

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

I come from the northeast, and deer are weighed after field dressing. I'm in IN now, and it seems most people I have talked to field dress deer here too. BUT I have seen plenty of TV shows and have heard of people taking their deer out of the woods before dressing. It seems to be the way they do it, especially as you go further south. That really surprises me, since spoilage occurs faster as temperature increases. Fastor in a poor hit, and man, I can see why some people think venison is gamey. They probably have only eaten deer that were not dressed for quite a while after they were shot. I think it has to do with the fact that these folks can often drive right to the deer and throw it in a truck. They don't have to drag much, and therefore don't need the benefit of reducing the weight.

I don't bother weighing any deer unless it is obviously over 150. Back in NH, we would all guess weights before putting them on the scale. After a while, you get pretty good at it, and most guesses are within 5 pounds under or over.

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

i always say dressed weight....

its like the whole horse power debate, is the hp at the wheels or at the crank? you never see people talking baout hp at the crank anymore but then you get those punks that think they know everything and start talking about hp at the wheels when its really at teh crank!

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

We weigh them field dressed. Any fool who drags out a whole deeer should eat the ponch:D

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

Dressed weight is what I use. People are funny to watch when you bring a deer in and they think it weighs so much. I am pretty good at guessing doe weights in that 90-110 range.

RE: How do you weigh your Deer? I mean....
 

I don't like griz, wolves and mountain lions, frequenting my favorite whitetail buck spots... hanging out at gut piles near my hunting stands or in the areas... I drag em out whole, usually with the help of someone else.

We weigh them whole and then again after we dress them out and dispose of the internals, but the majority of folks here don't. They weigh them dressed.